


Stranded beyond Solar

by Galsult



Series: The Worlds of Lylat [6]
Category: Star Fox Series
Genre: Fox presses Wolf's buttons, Light-Hearted, M/M, Wolf presses Fox's buttons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 12:58:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20639561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galsult/pseuds/Galsult
Summary: In a bid to get away from their shipmates, Fox and Wolf put themselves in the role of impromptu researchers orbiting the mysterious, fiery world of Solar as the planet undergoes a once-in-a-lifetime upheaval event.Said event gives them a little more free time than they were bargaining for.





	Stranded beyond Solar

A gloved fist smashed him hard enough across the end of his muzzle to let loose a spurt of blood from his left nostril.

“_Fuck!_”, the lupine grit out, pressing his paw against his nose to staunch the bleeding. Of course, he was also wearing a pair of boxing gloves himself, so his endeavor was ineffective.

Panther chuckled from his position across from Wolf, making sure to keep his stance at the ready despite the lupine’s injury. He’d learned the hard way in past bouts that Wolf could strike back just as easily as ever no matter how hard he got hit.

Wolf groaned as he shook his gloves off and lifted the hem of his tank top to hold it against his nose. “You better not have broken it, you little shit”, he nasally chastised.

Panther raised a single brow. “And what would you do if I did?”

“Dock your pay”, Wolf growled as he made his way off the raised boxing stage. “Permanently.”

Panther’s dark chuckling rang out as Wolf hopped to the floor (earning another spurt of blood to soak his shirt, _fuck_) and stalked towards the exit. The Great Fox had the largest gymnasium setup he’d ever seen on a spaceship before, replete with a weight room, running track, swimming pool: on and on it went. He was torn between enjoying the grade-A living conditions and heeding his unshakeable sixth sense that started ringing whenever he came across ludicrous, unnecessary expense.

He stripped his tank off and tied it around the end of his muzzle as a makeshift bandage, starting his walk of shame towards the medbay for some proper care. A month ago he’d never have dreamed of cavorting around the Great Fox a shirtless, bloody mess.

Of course, a month ago, he had his own damn ship.

He didn’t see anyone during his short jaunt to the Great Fox’s en-suite miniature hospital, but that wasn’t surprising. Most of Fox’s team was on the planet’s surface, delivering their recent ‘acquisition’ (as the Cornerian brass put it, not wanting to refer to the rogue science experiment gone wrong as a ‘prisoner’) to the Navy, or the LCI, or whoever they were handing her off too. Wolf didn’t know, and nor did he particularly care. As long as they got the creepy literal bitch off the ship he was fine – let the eggheads figure out how Andross managed to get his hand on Cerinian DNA.

And Fay was visiting her family somewhere in Corneria’s southern hemisphere, back at her ancestral homestead which she referred to as “The Doghouse”. She’d asked Wolf to go along with her, and damn him if he didn’t consider it for a split-second before his rationality kicked back in and made him realize that he never, _ever_, wanted to meet any more animals like Fay. One was enough.

Stick-in-the-mud that he was, as per usual, he’d opted to stay back and blow some steam with Panther. Nothing worked out spare aggression like beating the shit out of your good friend. And nothing was more of a power trip than strutting around a place half-naked and covered in blood like you owned it.

So he was surprised when the doors to the medbay opened with a hydraulic hiss, revealing Krystal fishing around a medicine cabinet. Her ears perked in shock and she turned to face Wolf, her surprise quickly visibly morphing into worry. “Wolf, are you alright?”, she asked.

He grunted as his only response – the bloodied tank top was tied tight around the end of his muzzle, so he couldn’t speak. Instead, he moseyed over to the cabinets himself, opening and closing the sliding compartment doors of each one until he found – _aha_, there it was. He untied the shirt from his muzzle and started wrapping a bandage around it instead, this time careful to make sure he didn’t seal his mouth off.

“Need any help with that?”, the vixen asked from off to the side, arms folded.

“Nope – I’m good”, he responded a little more curtly than he intended. He turned his head a bit to eye her. “Why aren’t you down there with the rest of the Goody Gang?”

She shrugged slowly. “I had business to take care of up here.”

_Bullshit_, Wolf thought, but he nodded anyway. If he had to guess, she probably felt weird as hell delivering a cloned Cerinian to the Cornerian government and decided to opt out. 

He was weighing the pros and cons of just calling her out and dragging a conversation about it into the open when he heard voices emanate from outside the medbay, his highly attuned ears swiveling to track the sound.

“_That raven’s got a stick up his ass so big it’s gotta count as a tree!_”

“_Well… I don’t know. I mean, he _does_ have a difficult job…_”

“Bah! My_ job’s difficult. _His_ job is just to stand around and bitch everyone out_.”

“_Calm down, you two. You’re both right_, _anyway_.”

Wolf meandered to the medbay doors and paused, leaning against the frame and waiting to time his moment _just_ right. He slid the doors aside exactly when the rest of Star Fox was directly across from him, causing the trio to startle some.

“Have a good time polishing the brass’s asses?”, he asked, donning his Cheshire grin. He knew the effect was probably ruined some by his bandaged muzzle and nasal voice, so he compensated by flexing his muscles.

Fox frowned, and Wolf noticed he looked equally confused and flustered. “Wolf”, the vulpine started calmly. “Why are you both injured and shirtless?”

Wolf shrugged, making sure to show off his shoulders and upper chest as much as possible. “Who can say?” Wolf considered any day where he didn’t get Fox keyed up in public a wasted one.

Falco rolled his eyes. “He probably tripped over himself while preening in the mirror. Come on, I’m hungry.” The avian continued down towards the kitchen, and Slippy followed, the two of them continuing to argue about whether Hugin was or was not a sadomasochist.

Fox remained behind, and he put his paws on his hips. “_Did_ you trip over yourself while preening?”

The lupine chuckled. “Oh, please. I’m not _that_ much of narcissist.” Fox didn’t seem convinced, though.

“Excuse me”, Krystal said politely as she shoved her way past Wolf and nodded at Fox. “I think I’ll head down to the cafeteria myself. Will you two be joining?”

Wolf looked at Fox, deciding to let the vulpine take the lead on this – he didn’t really care either way, himself. “Sure, we’ll be down in a bit”, Fox responded with a smile aimed at Krystal. She gave him one of her own and followed the path the other two had taken a moment prior.

Now resplendently alone, Wolf moved in and put his paws on both of Fox’s shoulders, making sure to invade the vulpine’s space _just_ enough to set him on edge. “You know, I _am_ hungry”, Wolf said quietly, almost a growling whisper. “I don’t think the kitchen has quite what I’m looking for, though.”

Fox’s ears blushed that crimson color Wolf was addicted to, but he removed Wolf’s paws from his shoulder with his own. “Not now, Wolf! We’re in an open hallway, in the middle of the day!”

The lupine purposely put on an air of indifferent confusion, as if to say ‘_how is that an issue?_’, earning a needy-sounding groan from Fox. “I didn’t say ‘no’ – just, not right now.” The vulpine sighed. “I just had a rough few hours.

Wolf struggled to dial back his pressing urge, trying his best to keep some distance. “That bad, huh?”

Fox barked out a single, exasperated laugh. “The worst. No one could decide whose purview she fell under, so they ultimately decided on ‘nobody’s’ and holed her up in the basement of the Spire. Hugin wants to keep the whole thing under wraps until we know more, and Peppy…” Fox sighed. “Peppy wants to take it public, let the House decide what to do with her.”

Wolf cocked his head to the side. “You don’t agree with Hare?” Now _that_ was a thrown loop if there ever was one.

Fox flexed his paws for a second, looking for the life of him like he was trying (and failing) to form words. “…No”, he said at last. “Bella, she – they have to keep her sedated constantly. They let her wake up _once_ to attempt to converse with her back at the Spire, and she started attacking people the same way she did back in Meteo. Don’t worry!”, he added at Wolf’s visible surprise. “They had her rigged up to be automatically re-sedated if anything went haywire, and the system went off immediately. Everyone who was attacked woke up – they’re all fine. It’s just…” He trailed off again. “I don’t think we can put her on trial, or ‘fix’ her, or _anything_. It’s horrible, but she’s…”

“…A failed experiment”, Wolf supplied softly. “I’m surprised you of all people think this way.” He folded his arms. “You’re basically advocating for holding a prisoner permanently without legal process.”

Fox’s ears dropped. “I know – and Peppy… wasn’t happy when I didn’t back him up on this one. But she’s just too dangerous to let go.” He shook his head. “We can’t risk it.”

Wolf eyed him – really eyed him. He agreed with everything out of Fox’s mouth; it was all what _he_ would have said if he was put into the vulpine’s position.

That realization caused his stomach to lurch. _It’s beginning_, he thought. _I’m corrupting him._ It didn’t matter what Falco had said, what he himself had felt. He did this to _everyone_ eventually. It was inevitable.

Something in his expression must have keyed Fox into his suddenly negative thoughts. “Hey”, the vulpine said calmly, resting his paw on Wolf’s bicep. “It’s alright.”

Wolf forced a grin on his face. “Yeah.”

But deep down, he knew. He knew it in his heart of hearts.

It _wasn’t_ alright.

……….

“So, the outward radiation levels are going to be off the chart. It’s a perfect time to gather data on the planet’s composition.”

Fox always found it a little funny how Slippy’s often awkward speech tendencies evaporated whenever science came into the equation. Falco just stared at the frog from his seat across from him, holding a mug of steaming coffee with ‘#1 Wingman’ emblazoned on the side (an old half-serious, half-gag gift from Fox, actually). “So what? It’s not like they can’t just study it whenever”, the avian responded.

But Slippy shook his head. “It _is_ like that, though. Solar’s temperature is just too extreme to do research from the surface for an extended period of time, let alone drill into it. The quake will be a perfect opportunity to pick up on any wavelengths of trace materials – who knows what could be down there!”

Falco shrugged. “Rocks?”

Slippy sighed exasperatedly at Falco’s apparent lack of curiosity about Solar’s elementary makeup. Fox made quick eye contact with Krystal as he started digging into his egg salad, and she gave him a knowing look in response. Falco and Slippy’s banter might as well be the soundtrack to living on the Great Fox.

“I don’t get it”, Wolf spoke up from his position down the line, mercifully now wearing a shirt – Fox didn’t think he could take more of Wolf’s casual semi-nudity today. “Starships can handle the vacuum of space and shields can absorb lasers – why _can’t_ they just dig into the planet with a shielded drill? Shouldn’t be too hard to whip one up.”

Slippy turned to face the lupine, seemingly surprised by the inquiry. “That’s a good question, actually. And the answer is that prolonged exposure to excess heat and radiation is enough to overpower any shield after a certain period of time. It’s like being constantly bombarded with a steady stream of blaster energy coming from all directions – not even our most advanced shields can take it for more than a half-hour, and that’s just not enough time to sustain a drilling operation.”

He drew his comm-device and brought up a still of Solar overlaid with digital text boxes displaying information. “That’s why this upcoming planet-quake’s such a big deal. Lots of material from Solar’s mantle and core is going to be blasted into the atmosphere, giving us our first look at what the interior of the planet’s actually made of.”

Falco still looked unimpressed. “Yeah, but why does anyone care? So what: a volcanic planet’s going to erupt. Big deal.”

“There might be exotic elements in Solar’s core”, Slippy explained. “We still don’t know why the planet’s as volatile as it is. Solar’s one of the oldest planets in Lylat, but it still behaves like a newborn – its surface never settled and fully solidified. Maybe the explanation’s down there, and maybe it’s about to be let out by the quake.”

Wolf hummed in thought for a second, then turned to Fox with a devilish glint in his eye. “Why don’t we go check it out?”, he directed at the vulpine.

Fox froze mid-bite, eyes wide, mouth full and a mess of egg salad at the end of his muzzle, as everyone at the table turned to look at him. He swallowed it down and cleaned his mouth with a napkin before responding. “What do you mean?”

The lupine shrugged a little too exaggeratedly to take seriously. “This sounds like a big deal, yeah? And your Arwings have fancy-shmancy sensors – why don’t we go take some readings for Froggy Boy’s benefit?”

Fox’s eyes narrowed. He knew there had to be more to it than that – Wolf would _never_ volunteer for a data-gathering mission. But he didn’t want to call him out about that in front of everyone else, so he simply nodded his head. “Alright”, he said before turning to Slippy. “That sound good, Slip?”

The amphibian nodded a little noncommittally. “…Yeah? I mean, I was thinking of, you know… sort of going myself –”

“Nonsense”, Wolf interrupted him. “Fox and I aren’t doing anything – we can take care of it.” He leaned back and put his arms behind his head. “’Sides, I’m getting stir-crazy in this place. I need to see the stars. This gives me an excuse.”

_Well that sort of explains it_, Fox thought. He didn’t want to step on Slippy’s toes though. “You sure?”, he directed at the frog. “You can still do it if you want.”

Slippy shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I need to call Amanda anyway.” He turned a little green at the gills – which, on him, was a pretty profound effect. “She wants my help with, _uh_… wedding planning.”

Falco grimaced. “_Geez_. My condolences.”

Krystal looked annoyed at the avian. “There’s nothing wrong at all about planning a wedding. In fact, it sounds exciting.” She gave Slippy an encouraging look. “I’m sure you’ll do just fine.”

The amphibian smiled at her encouragement, but still gulped anyway. “Y-yeah.”

Fox gave him a pat on the back. “Krystal’s right. You plan things out with Amanda – Wolf and I will be able to get the readings just fine.” He looked at Wolf, still not entirely sure what angle he was playing here.

Slippy smiled cautiously. “Thanks, you guys. Oh, and one of you should take my Arwing. I fitted it with more advanced sensors than the others.”

Falco glared at him. “_Hey!_ Why do you get the fancier stuff?”

Slippy started waving his hands in an attempt to calm the bird down. “No, no! They’re not combat sensors or anything like that – just research stuff.”

Fox rolled his eyes as Falco responded and they started up their arguing again. He surreptitiously glanced at Wolf, and caught a momentary lapse in the lupine’s mask. He looked… _worried_. Fox was a little unnerved by seeing that expression, but it quickly disappeared when Wolf noticed he was looking and replaced it with a lopsided grin.

Fox responded to it with a mild-manner smile of his own, but it was a little half-hearted.

What was going through Wolf’s mind, exactly?

……….

Fox was halfway to his Arwing when he felt Wolf’s paw firmly grasp his shoulder.

“Nope”, the lupine told him, leaning his muzzle into Fox’s neck. “We’re taking Slippy’s, remember?”

Fox turned his head to look at him. They were both wearing proper pilot gear now, but Wolf never seemed to be any more or less out of his element, regardless of what he was wearing. “No”, Fox shook his head. “_You’re_ taking Slippy’s. I’m taking mine.”

Wolf chuckled. “See, that’s where you’re wrong”, he said with lidded eyes and a dangerous grin. “We’re _both_ taking Froggy Boy’s.”

Fox’s eyes narrowed. “It’ll be a tight fit.”

The lupine’s violet eye practically sparkled at that, and Fox groaned at his turn of phrase. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

Fox sighed and rubbed his face with his paw. “_Fine_. Whatever, we’ll take one ship. This might take a few hours though: don’t blame me if you get a leg cramp.”

Wolf shrugged, seemingly without a care in the world, and Fox started towards Slippy’s craft instead. “Do you want to fly?”, he asked the lupine, earning a tilt of laughter in reply.

“Nope”, he said, popping the ‘p’ sound a bit. “In all these years, I’ve never actually been flown by you – seen how you operate up close. I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”

“Is that what this is about?”, Fox asked as he lifted himself up towards the cockpit. “You just want to watch me fly?”

Wolf looked at him like he was daft. “How else am I supposed to learn how to take you down?”

Fox groaned and strapped himself in the seat. Wolf took up position behind him, in that little gap between the pilot’s chair and back of the cockpit that only sort of counted as a second seat. When they were both settled in and Wolf gave him a thumbs-up, he started up the launch cycle.

“Hope you’re comfy”, Fox grumbled; though deep down, he was actually looking forward to getting some proper alone time with Wolf. Maybe _that_ was the real reason the lupine pushed for this.

“I’m never _not_ comfy”, said lupine responded. And damn if Fox didn’t believe him.

He ignited the Arwing’s thrusters and watched as the bay doors opened, slowly tilting the ship forward and out of the Great Fox’s spacious hangar, into the wilds of space beyond.

……….

Their Arwing exited the dizzying emerald-colored tunnel of warp-space, emerging from the other side of the gate like someone might surface from a body of water. Fox made sure they were a fair distance away from their destination – it wouldn’t do to miscalculate and warp directly into their target, after all. He didn’t even want to think about the mind-bogglingly convoluted world of warp dynamics in relation to ‘real’ space, a precise science of measurements and feedback from outside the warp-tunnel that ensured no one accidentally sliced into someone else with a warp gate.

The visions of teal-green outside the cockpit window were swiftly replaced with crimson, as the violent light of Solar’s seas of flame struck out across the vacuum of space. Though Fox didn’t remember it looking quite _this_ dramatic on his past forays to the planet.

“Damn”, Wolf said from behind him, apparently echoing his thoughts. “Guess this planet quake really _is_ a big deal, huh?”

“Yeah…”, Fox said quietly, a little in awe.

Solar was never a _calm_ planet: a ball of magma that had somehow remained in that nascent state of planetdom far beyond what was normal. Ancient records from early Cornerian astronomers showed their ancestors believed it was a second sun. Fox might not have been an astrophysicist, but even he’d heard plenty of theories about the world over the years, ranging from the reasonable (the planet’s unusually structured metallic core prevented the surface from settling), to the entertaining-yet-delusional (it was artificially engineered by a long-lost, highly advanced space-faring civilization).

Regardless of how it came to be, it always made a bit of a sight up-close.

But now the whole planet looked like it was on the verge of collapse. Even from their relative distance, Fox could physically see the currents of lava moving in giant, hemisphere-spanning swirls and whorls, covering the planet in eddies of flame. Every so often, a plume of super-heated metal would shoot from the center of the one of the whirlpools.

As they continued their approach, Fox started to notice a reasonably high number of research ships orbiting the planet from a safe distance pop up on the radar, all of them much larger than Slippy’s Arwing. “Guess this is a popular event”, he said.

“Yeah. Looks like Froggy Boy isn’t the only egghead creaming himself over this.”

Fox bit his tongue. Wolf’s chiding, borderline-derogatory nicknames for his teammates always left him a little miffed, and he was never sure if he wanted to actually bring it up with the lupine or not. The fact that he considered something _not_ okay to bring up with Wolf was worrisome, though – what did that say about their relationship?

“You want to say something, Fox?”

Fox turned his head to look at Wolf, who was leaning almost all the way onto the vulpine’s seat, an inscrutable expression on his face. “You _look_ like you want to say something”, he reiterated.

“…Why do you always call Slippy that?”, Fox asked cautiously. “You know, ‘Froggy Boy’. You call Falco ‘Birdbrain’ a lot too.”

Wolf laughed. “Shit, Fox. _That’s_ what’s got you looking all worried up there?” He shook his head. “Well, fine. I’ll stop if you want me to.”

And that was exactly why Fox didn’t want to bring it up. He _knew_ Wolf would take it as an insult and get all defensive and be a martyr about it. “Look, Wolf, it’s not a big deal –”

“Only big enough of a deal to make you get all bent-out-of-shape about it”, the lupine interrupted.

Fox groaned. “Why do you have to be so obstinate all the time?”

Wolf went silent at that, and Fox frowned again. He hated this – he wished he could actually _see_ Wolf. This whole ‘sitting behind him’ thing was making the discussion more difficult than it had to be.

“…It’s who I am, pup”, he responded at last. “If you can’t handle it, maybe this won’t work out.”

Fox almost lurched Slippy’s Arwing to the side before internally calming himself and setting it back on track, continuing towards their destination. He tried to put himself into that sort of zen state he entered before battle, because he got the distinct sense he was on the verge of one.

“What do you mean?”, he asked the lupine calmly, collectedly. He didn’t get emotional – refused to rise to the bait.

Wolf took a deep breath and sighed through his nostrils. Fox could feel the warmth from them against the back of his head. “I _mean_, I’m not an easy-going guy. ‘Obstinate’, as you put it. If being ‘obstinate’ is going to piss you off, it’d save us a lot of trouble if you called this thing off now.”

Fox didn’t answer. Instead, he slowly brought the Arwing to a standstill at about the same distance from Solar as the other research vessels. He methodically turned on all of Slippy’s custom environmental sensors, using the time to relax himself and gather his thoughts.

“Wolf”, he asked quietly as he activated the last probe. “Did you come out here to break up with me?”

The lupine didn’t answer.

“No, that’s not right – is it?”, Fox continued. “You wanted to come out here to make _me_ break up with _you_.”

Still no response.

Slippy’s Arwing secure, Fox undid the seatbelt and turned himself around in the chair, legs splayed out on either side and arms lying on the headrest. “Can you tell me why?”

Seeing Wolf made it more obvious. The lupine’s mask was hanging by a thread. His implant was as cold and distant as ever, but his good eye burned with a certain unplaceable intensity. He was trying very hard to look stable, but Fox knew him better now. He was starting to see past the surface – and what he saw was a very tired, very battered Wolf.

He cautiously laid his paw on top of Wolf’s own, goading him to say something. _Anything_.

“…I’m going to ruin you”, the lupine said at last, voice croaking.

Fox’s ears dropped. It was exactly what he feared; exactly what Panther had warned him about. He wanted to lash out and say Wolf was being ridiculous, _preposterous_ – but he knew the lupine was dead-set on feeling the way he did, and responding emotionally would only make things worse.

No, he had to find a way to convince Wolf he was wrong through reason.

“Why do you think that?”, he asked gently, stroking Wolf’s paw with his own. For whatever it was worth, Wolf didn’t recoil or pull away.

“Because I do it to everyone eventually”, the lupine responded, sounding like he was speaking through a fine layer of gravel.

Fox might not have immediately said anything in response to that, but damn if he didn’t _feel_ it. Just what had Wolf gone through to make him see himself this way?

“Do you have proof?”, he asked after a moment of silence, the only sound in the Arwing the steady beeping of Slippy’s scanners. Wolf looked confused, so Fox repeated himself more clearly, determined to get his point across. “Do you have any evidence to back that claim up?”

Wolf still wouldn’t make eye contact, but at least he spoke up. “I don’t need any.” Fox couldn’t stop himself from smiling a little, and Wolf looked pissed. “What’s up with you? Now you’re fucking, what, _happy_ about this or something?”

Fox shook his head. “I’m sorry. It’s just such an uncharacteristically ‘not-you’ thing to say. That you don’t need any proof to back up a claim, I mean.” He managed to get the lupine to look at him properly at that. “Since when did you ever not need evidence to know something?”

Now Wolf looked properly indignant, his paw tightening its grip on his flight pants. “I don’t need proof to know what I know!”, he practically growled before suddenly going a little slack, developing a hazy glaze to his biological eye.

Fox was hopeful he was beginning to break through. “You know that’s total bullshit, right?”, he asked calmly, refusing to tear his eyes from Wolf’s own, even though the latter wasn’t looking at him anymore.

Wolf tossed his head back and took it in his paws, groaning. He slowly slid them down the length of his muzzle before letting them drop back in his lap. “What do you know about it, McCloud?”

And that was that – Fox actually laughed at that one. “Oh, so I’m _McCloud_ now, am I?” He flicked Wolf on the lupine’s nose, earning a very undignified yelp followed by a look of ire.

“Don’t fuck with what you don’t understand, _pup_”, he said, emphasizing the last word like it was a warning.

Fox shook his head. “That’s the thing, though, Wolf. I _do_ understand.” He looked the lupine in the eyes. “You think I don’t know what it feels like to believe you’re dragging everyone around you down? You didn’t know me when I was younger, Wolf. I was a mess.”

Wolf stared at him, and there was something different in his gaze now – Fox wasn’t sure what, but he desperately hoped it was understanding, or at least something approaching it. “I don’t believe you”, Wolf said at last.

“I don’t care if you don’t – the truth’s the truth.” Fox took one of Wolf’s limp paws and lifted it towards him, ignoring the small, surprised jump he got in response. “After my dad died, I gorged myself on work, hoping my studies could fill the hole. Peppy was the only friend I had at the time – not because no one else wanted to be, but because I wouldn’t let them near me. You want to know why?”

Wolf paused, and nodded slowly.

“Because I was an emotional wreck, and I was worried I’d bring them down to my level. I didn’t want to get close to anyone because I was afraid sharing my burden with them would only make their lives worse. It wasn’t until I met Falco and then Slippy that I started to open myself up.” He took a deep breath and let it out. “I’ve never told anyone that before, so congratulations.”

“…I don’t feel like I’ve won anything.”

Fox chuckled, hoping the snark was a sign. “No one ever ‘wins’ at life. You have to make the best with the hand you’re dealt – and chasing people away because you’re afraid you’ll, what, taint them?” He shook his head. “That’s not making the best of anything.”

The pair of canines stayed silent for a moment, as Fox let the ramifications of his spiel settle in with Wolf.

Hopefully.

Wolf jerked a bit from his position. “I don’t know how to make myself not…”, Wolf started again and trailed off, and Fox nodded to get him to continue. “…I don’t know how to not hate myself.”

Fox smiled a sad smile. Of course it came down to this.

He lifted Wolf’s paw to his muzzle and kissed it lightly before looking him in the eyes and speaking quietly. “You start by trusting other people when they tell you you’re not a monster, and you’re not going to corrupt anyone, and you’re a perfectly loveable wolf.”

The lupine looked at him with a stilted expression belied by the fire in his eyes. “Do you?”, he asked. “Love me, that is.”

Fox felt like the tables were turned – no, scratch that, they were _upheaved_. His position as the rational one in this conversation was just tossed out the window. “Wolf, I –”

At that exact moment, the entire Arwing was rocked by a sudden burst of force and Wolf – not having anything to strap himself down – went tumbling over himself Zero-G as the craft was sent veering.

Fox instinctually reached for and grasped Wolf’s arm with his left paw while he kept the right on the Arwing’s controls, trying to re-stabilize it. But his efforts were in vein – no matter how hard he pushed, the ship wouldn’t respond.

The starfighter finally started to slow down a few seconds later; though to the two canines, it felt like it might as well have been an hour. Wolf swam through the now-still air back to his prior position. “What the _hell_ just happened!?”

“Working on it”, Fox said, mind on autopilot as he began a systems check. The artificial gravity was disabled; primary thrusters, disabled; communications, disabled. The only thing _not_ disabled was the oxygen converter keeping them alive, as it ran on a special emergency power source separate from the Arwing’s main grid.

“…This is bad”, Fox said, almost to himself.

“How bad?”, the lupine asked, literally hovering just behind Fox’s seat.

The vulpine tried flipping switches at random to no avail – because of course it was, the damn power was out. “We just got hit with something, probably a burst of radiation. All systems are dead except life support.”

He flicked his ear by reflex as Wolf floated up to look beyond the top of the cockpit. “Looks like we aren’t the only ones.”

Fox’s eyes followed the lupine’s. The flaming ball of swirling lava that was Solar dominated most of the view above his head, but surrounding it were the other research ships – and it looked like they’d careened off-course too, dead against the backdrop of space.

Fox hefted a beleaguered sigh. “Great. Perfect.” He dropped his head into his paws, feeling the early pinpricks of a panic attack coming on. “_Now_ what do we do?”

Wolf shrugged. “We’ll be fine – someone’s going to notice a bunch of high-class science vessels went AWOL and come check it out eventually. Not to mention our teammates.” He grunted as he re-settled himself back in his little alcove behind the pilot’s seat. “It’s just a matter of waiting for them to get here.”

Fox tapped his foot against the floor of ship, trying to quell his burgeoning anxiety. “They better be here soon.”

“Doubt it”, Wolf said calmly. “It’ll probably be a few hours till they get worried enough to check it out.” He turned to look at the planet again. “Guess Slippy was right about Solar having weird shit going on. Never heard of a planet spontaneously generating an EMP burst.”

“Yeah”, Fox replied. “There’s _definitely_ going to be some odd readings on his sensors. Probably weird enough that even I… wait”, Fox froze. “You just called him ‘Slippy’.”

Wolf shrugged again, a little less enthusiastically this time. He said nothing, and Fox decided against saying something himself. It was probably best to let the moment pass in quiet understanding.

Fox started a deep breathing exercise as quietly as he could to keep himself calm, but Wolf must have noticed anyway. “You okay up there, Fox?”

“Yes”, Fox lied, and Wolf laughed.

“You suck at bullshitting people, you know that?” Wolf gently floated to Fox’s right, nestling his head into the space between Fox’s seat and the window of the cockpit to get a good look at him.

Unable to keep up the charade, Fox smiled awkwardly. “I have a thing about being adrift in space.”

Wolf made a dismissive sound. “Who doesn’t? Shit, Fox, it’s not like that’s a special phobia to have. It’s normal.”

“Have you ever been stuck like this before?”, the vulpine asked.

“Yeah, a few times.” He grinned a little darkly. “One of them was even caused by you.”

The color drained from Fox’s ears. “I… see”, he responded. “Sorry about that.”

Wolf chuckled. “Don’t mention it. Anyway”, he squeezed himself around the chair and started floating along the front of the cockpit window. “You just gotta find something to distract yourself. Keep that sense of helplessness at bay.”

Fox nodded. “Alright. That shouldn’t be too hard.”

……….

As the second hour spent floating adrift marched on into the third, Fox had only one thought:

“This is too hard”, the vulpine grumbled irately, earning a somewhat mean-spirited laugh from Wolf.

“Come on, now”, Wolf chided. “Where’s your sportsman’s spirit? Now answer the question.”

Fox huffed and rolled his eyes, deciding to humor Wolf and do what he wanted. His gaze trailed over everything in sight, settling on the only thing of the appropriate color he could find. “The emissions switch”, he pointed listlessly.

Wolf shook his head. “Nope.”

Fox groaned and tossed his arms back. “I give up! I can’t find anything else that’s teal.”

“So you admit that you can’t spy? For shame, Fox.” Wolf frowned and shook his head, tutting at him like he was a child. The action only further spurred his annoyance.

“The only thing I admit is that you’re bad at ‘I spy’”.

Wolf grinned. “If I was _bad_ at it, then you’d be able to find what I spied a lot easier, wouldn’t you?”

Fox glared at the lupine and turned back around, facing out into space. “We’re done.”

Wolf exaggeratedly put a paw to his chest. “So soon after convincing me to stick around? You’re a really indecisive one, Fox.”

Fox threw his head back into the headrest of his seat and groaned. “No, Wolf. I’m not done with _you_. I’m done playing this stupid game.” He half-turned his head to look Wolf in the eye. “Don’t you have anything else we can do? How’d you pass the time when you were stranded? How did you not go stir-crazy?”

The lupine shrugged casually. “Slept for most of it. Worried for some of it.” He titled his head and looked at Fox a little dangerously. “Jerked off for the rest.”

Fox scoffed. “Great. I can’t see myself doing any of those except the one in the middle.” He pulled his legs up towards his midline and hugged them. “I hate this.”

The pronouncement rung out amidst the silence of the ship, still adrift in the void. Fox knew it was only a matter of time until someone came for them, but the interminable waiting was excruciating.

His thoughts were interrupted when he felt a gentle pair of paws settle on both of his shoulders, first simply laying there, then starting to massage him. Against his better judgment, Fox let himself relax into the touch.

“Hey”, Wolf said calmly, right into Fox’s ear. “You need to _relax_. You’re getting way too strung out by this.” The lupine continued his ministrations, and Fox found himself surprisingly in agreement.

“…Okay”, he responded, letting Wolf massage him, letting the touch smooth his frayed nerves and maybe even give him a sense of calm.

A few minutes passed, and Fox felt like he was floating. Well, he _was_ floating, sort of, since there wasn’t any gravity in the comatose Arwing – but Wolf’s kneading presses made him really feel it. He let out a few unintentional sounds of pleasure as Wolf extended the radius of his attention, moving down across his upper back, even towards his front and hitting the top of his chest beneath his clavicles. Fox let out a downright embarrassing sound as one of Wolf’s paws mischievously went south, caressing his lower chest and upper abdomen through his shirt.

“You’re too uptight”, Wolf said quietly. “Too wound-up. Your muscles are full of knots.”

Fox hummed thoughtfully and let his mind drift. “Since when were you a masseuse?”

“Took a class with the Venomian Navy”, he responded. “Before the war started.”

Fox opened his eyes and turned his head to stare at him, assuming it was a joke – but there wasn’t any hint of jocularity in Wolf’s expression. “_Seriously?_ The Venomian Navy had, what, massage training?” As Wolf nodded, Fox couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it.

“You really going to knock on it when I’m treating you like this?” Wolf’s paws dug into the muscles lining Fox’s shoulder blades, pressing into them and freeing up spaces that had been tight for so long Fox forgot what it had felt like when they were loose. “I could be charging you a lot of cash for this, Fox. You should be glad I’m so charitable.”

“Yeah”, Fox responded. “When I think of ‘charity’, your face is the first thing that comes to mind.”

Wolf shook his head. “Don’t say rude things, McCloud. That’s a punishable offense.”

Fox cocked an eyebrow. “Punishable how?”

The lupine’s smile grew predatory, and Fox only had a split second to ruminate on the dangerous cast to his expression before he found the harness holding him in place undone, his body floating freely in the cockpit – and Wolf swimming through the air to meet him. Before he could voice any surprise or displeasure at the lupine’s sudden attack, Wolf shoved him back into the pilot’s seat – and straddled him there.

“You know”, Wolf said with a low grumble, staring down at the vulpine as if he was captive prey. “You have a bad tendency to leave yourself open to surprise attacks”.

Fox ignored how flustered he was by Wolf’s position on top of him and kept his expression steady. “Is that what this is?”, he asked. “A surprise attack?”

The lupine shoved both of his paws into the seat on both sides of Fox’s head and leaned in. He had Fox totally pinned, and looked distinctly pleased by it.

“It’s whatever I want it to be.” Wolf used his body weight as leverage to press Fox deeper into the seat, his muzzle rubbing against the crook of the vulpine’s neck, the warmth of his breath setting Fox’s fur on end. Wolf lowered his right paw from the headrest to Fox’s side, stroking him. All of a sudden, Fox felt like there were too many layers separating himself from Wolf’s touch.

“I…”, Fox tried to speak as Wolf started grinding against him – _gyrating_ – his ass rubbing against Fox’s cock, the friction setting Fox’s nerves on end and causing his ears to blush furiously. “I _just_ told you I couldn’t see myself doing stuff like this, like, a minute ago.”

“No”, Wolf disagreed as he took his other paw from the side of Fox’s head, both of them now massaging Fox’s chest and abdomen the same way they had his back. “You said you couldn’t see yourself _jerking off_.” He removed his paws from their work on Fox’s body to gesture to the two of them, intertwined as they were on the seat. “This look like whacking it?”

“No, but it’s the principle of – _ah!_” Fox’s quasi-serious indignance was cut off by the sensation of Wolf’s tongue trailing up the side of his neck, across his cheek, and settling on his muzzle. Whatever momentary hesitation he felt evaporated as he let himself be drawn deeper into Wolf’s kiss, the feeling of being absolutely dominated and surrounded by Wolf chasing away the last remnants of his anxiety over being stuck adrift in the vacuum of space.

His thoughts and worries dissipated as he closed his eyes and simply focused on what he _felt_. Wolf’s tongue pushing and pulling against his own; the lupine’s one paw cupping his face, the other stroking his side; the firm-yet-round press of Wolf’s lower body rhythmically kneading against his own. When he felt the paw rubbing his side sneak under his shirt and jacket, he moaned softly at the feeling of direct contact.

He felt Wolf smile into the kiss and pull back, and opened his eyes to see a wicked grin. “Little _needy_, aren’t we, pup?” He punctuated the last syllable with a forceful rock against Fox’s groin, eliciting a gasp from the vulpine.

Fox could barely string together a sentence, so he opted for answering with action. He pushed his muzzle back towards Wolf, forcing the lupine back into reconnecting the kiss while his own paws curved around Wolf and dipped under his jacket, stroking the hard, curving musculature of his back.

“_Guess that answers my question_”, Wolf bit out as they kissed. He sat up and broke the contact between their lower bodies, and resettled himself down between Fox’s legs, in front of the seat. An absolutely devilish glint was twinkling in his good eye, and his prominent canines were visible in his half-smile.

“Wolf…”, Fox said desperately as the lupine began to play with his cock through his pants, his paws rhythmically rubbing against the thick material; the friction sweet, yet not _nearly_ direct enough.

“What’s the matter, Fox?”, he roughly chided. “Can’t hold your own?” He deftly undid Fox’s belt, and the vulpine instinctively swallowed in nervous anticipation as Wolf slowly, methodically, pulled his pants down. The lupine stared right into Fox’s eyes while he licked him through his briefs, causing Fox to hiss in pleasure. He lapped against his head, his shaft, and Fox could just barely feel the hot, wet sensation of his tongue through the still too-thick fabric.

It was driving him insane.

“_Goddammit, Wolf_ – will you cut it out and just suck me off, already!?”, he lashed out. Only as the sound of his own words echoed in his ears and Wolf let out a peal of laughter did he realize he’d actually said it out loud, causing him to blush even further.

“Guess you really can’t hold your own, huh? But alright”, Wolf answered, dipping his paw beneath the hem of Fox’s briefs and grabbing his cock directly, earning a sound of relief from the vulpine. “You’re the captain of this ship.”

He yanked Fox’s briefs down to pool with his pants around his ankles, and jostled Fox’s cock around a bit, holding the base of it with his paw. He gave Fox another mischievous, dangerous look before he started to –

Fox dipped his head back into the seat again, this time with an absolute sense of relaxation and pleasure, as Wolf meticulously covered every inch of his cock – kissing, licking, sucking, cupping Fox’s paws with his free paw. Fox absentmindedly settled his right paw on the back of Wolf’s head as he bobbed up and down the length of his cock, swirling his tongue with every push and retraction.

Fox let Wolf continue as he did for a few moments, but as he started to feel himself getting closer, he pulled at Wolf’s head, signaling him to stop.

“…What’s a matter?”, Wolf asked him seriously, paw still around the base of Fox’s saliva-slick cock.

“It’s just…”, Fox tried to find the words. “I don’t want to go without, you know… getting you to go too?”

Wolf stared at him for a second before grinning and shaking his head in disbelief. “What?”, Fox snapped at the lupine’s apparent humor at the situation.

“You’re such a fucking romantic, Fox. But fine. I’ll humor you.” He stood up in what little free space there was and started to undo his own belt. Fox stared with an alert hyper-focus as Wolf slowly, teasingly, removed items of clothing until he matched Fox’s own state of affairs.

Before he had a chance to get another quip off, Fox had his arm around Wolf’s waist and was drawing him nearer – a much easier proposition than it normally would’ve been, thanks to the lack of gravity. He cupped Wolf’s ass with one paw while he drew the other along the lupine’s cock, pumping up and down the length of it he couldn’t take with his mouth. Wolf groaned pleasurably as Fox slid up and down at a measured pace, before growing impatient and gripping the fur of Fox’s head with his paw and manhandling him a little, trying to get him to speed up. Fox obliged, and even tried to go a little deeper than he had in the past, as Wolf bucked his hips in time with the movements of Fox’s mouth.

Fox could only take so much of that before he needed to remove himself and start coughing though. He looked up at Wolf sheepishly, but the lupine only shrugged. “Guess you’re not at high-impact deepthroat level yet.”

Fox chuckled. “No. No, I don’t think so.” He reclined back into the seat, followed by Wolf laying down right on top of him, their cocks bouncing against each other. As Wolf absentmindedly dry-humped Fox’s pelvis, pushing into Fox’s own cock with every forward thrust, Fox found himself being incredibly turned on by the idea of Wolf pushing into him like that.

“…Hey, Wolf?”, he asked quietly. “Do you have any lube?”

Wolf froze in his actions and just stared at Fox, a look of uncertainty writ large on his face. “Why do you ask?”

Fox shrugged his shoulders. “I just thought we could, you know – maybe try out what we didn’t get to? Last time?”

Wolf only continued to look at him appraisingly. “You sure about that, Fox?”

Fox paused for a beat, but nodded. Wolf nodded back in turn and leaned over to fully kick his pants off before rummaging through their copious pockets for his intended goal. He faced Fox with a look of triumph as he shook the little bottle. “Never go anywhere without it.”

Wolf started rubbing Fox’s inner thigh. “You ever do anything like this? By yourself, I mean – I know you’ve never fucked around with guys before me.”

Fox nervously shook his head, his whole body quivering with a certain unplaceable anticipation. “No.”

Wolf grunted. “Well, we’ll see how this goes, then”, he said almost under his breath before applying a liberal amount of lube to his right index finger. “If you don’t like it, just say so.”

Fox nodded. “A-alright.”

The lupine took Fox’s cock in his left paw, stroking against his ass with his right, slowly circling deeper until he reached Fox’s back entrance. He tentatively pressed and pushed his finger against it and watched Fox’s reaction as a gauge.

“I’m liking it so far”, Fox said breathily as Wolf methodically rubbed his entrance.

“That’s the easy part”, the lupine responded. “You’re going to feel a pinch when I go in – you ready?”

Fox wasn’t entirely sure how to answer, but he ultimately gave Wolf the go-ahead. Wolf slowly pressed his finger deeper, and deeper – Fox flinched a bit at the initial entrance, but held firm – and suddenly, the pinch dissipated after Wolf’s finger went past a certain point, the pain only present nearer to his entrance.

“…_Uh_”, Fox spoke up.

“How does it feel?”, Wolf asked.

“…Weird”, Fox responded.

Wolf laughed. “Hold on a second.” He angled his finger in a different direction, curving it, and –

Fox let out what he guessed was probably the most embarrassing sound he’d ever made in his life.

“Yeah”, Wolf said with a grin. “That’d be the part that makes people want to do this.” He rubbed against that one spot with the tip of his finger repeatedly, and Fox began to absentmindedly push into it, continuing to let out a breathy, reedy, high-pitched series of short moans.

“Ready for more?”, Wolf asked quietly, and Fox nodded.

“_Yes._”

Wolf slowly retracted his finger, the pinch returning as it exited, and Fox watched as Wolf began to douse his cock in lube – by the time he was done, it was dripping with the stuff.

“Let me know if it’s too much”, Wolf said as he positioned the head against Fox’s entrance.

He pushed in, against just as slowly as with the finger, but this time the pinch was much harder. Fox grit his teeth as Wolf continued to push deeper inside – he felt like he was at breaking point. He instinctively gripped Wolf’s arm with his paw. “Stop. Too much.”

Wolf ceased his actions, and slowly began to retract his cock from Fox’s hole. As he pulled it out with a popping sensation, Fox looked up at him in shame.

“I’m sorry”, the vulpine said, but Wolf slapped him on the shoulder.

“No worries – didn’t think you’d be able to right away, anyway.”

Fox sighed a little uncomfortably as he continued to lay there on the seat, and looked confused as Wolf started opening the bottle of lube again.

“…Wolf?”, he asked. “What’re you doing?”

The lupine shot him a lopsided grin. “I don’t know about you, but I’m still horny as hell. And now I’m definitely in the mood to fuck.”

Fox narrowed his eyes and frowned. “Well, yeah, but I don’t think I…”

As Wolf raised an eyebrow, Fox started to understand.

“Wait. _What?_”

Wolf grinned at him dangerously as he started to drizzle lube onto Fox’s cock. “What’s wrong, Fox? Don’t think I can take it?”

“Well, no. I mean, _yes_, I mean…” He grasped for words and sighed. “I just didn’t think you’d be into that.”

Wolf barked out a laugh. “Trust me, Fox. I’ve been fucked plenty of times. The only question is if _you_ want to.”

Fox looked at his own cock, rock-hard, and Wolf’s ass, suddenly very inviting.

“Yes”, he said without hesitation.

Wolf grinned impishly. “That’s what I like to hear.”

Fox began to stand up before Wolf pushed him back into the seat. “I don’t think so. This is your first time fucking ass – I’m going to be the one in charge here.” Wolf splayed himself across Fox’s lap, holding their slick cocks together and jerking them off before raising himself and positioning Fox’s towards his own backside.

The vulpine swallowed nervously again. “You, _uh_… you don’t need any preparation, or anything?”

Wolf shook his head. “I’m used to it enough. Now”, he gripped Fox’s shoulders with his paws. Despite being the one about to do the fucking, Fox felt every bit as vulnerable as he had when Wolf tried to fuck him, and Wolf looked like he was in his element – his proper domain, dominant over the vulpine. “You ready?”

Fox nodded. “Yeah.”

Wolf grinned and began to slowly lower himself onto Fox’s cock.

“_O-oh_”, Fox let out as the tight, lube-slicked heat enveloped him completely as Wolf steadily lowered himself totally down to Fox’s pelvis. The lupine tilted his head back and opened his mouth to sigh, grinning all the while. He tilted it back down to face Fox with a challenging, tempestuous look. “Feel good, pup?”

Fox grit out a grin. “_Obviously_.”

Wolf laughed again at that and raised himself back up, all the way to the tip of Fox’s cock, before lowering himself right down on it again, eliciting a moan from the vulpine. Wolf rhythmically bounced up and down Fox’s cock as Fox stroked the lupine’s sides, Wolf’s silhouette haloed by the scorching light of Solar in the distance – like a shadow puppet, bringing Fox closer and closer and closer yet to a peak of physical pleasure he’d never felt before.

Wolf picked up the pace as the Arwing tilted in its trajectory, allowing Fox to make out the enraptured details in the lupine’s face – the domineering grin, lust-hazed eyes, his cock hard and leaking as he rode Fox.

“W-Wolf”, Fox began. “I’m going to cum soon.”

The lupine mischievously increased his pace at that, causing Fox to moan. “_Good_”, he said. “Go for it”, he all but demanded.

Fox eagerly assented as the motion and tightness and heat of Wolf pushed him over the edge. He bit his lower lip as he came, groaning with pleasure – _too much pleasure_ – as he came inside Wolf, every nerve ending in his cock firing at full force and not letting down as Wolf continued to ride him as he finished.

“Oh _fuck_”, Wolf stated loudly and breathily. He started to convulse around Fox, the tightening of him around Fox’s already over-sensitive cock causing the vulpine to buck his hips on instinct even though he was already spent. Wolf came – shooting in three arcs across Fox and the seat. He was silent as he finished, but groaned loudly and pleasurably immediately afterward, throwing his head back.

The pair of canines breathed heavily as they came down from their respective lustful highs, Wolf moaning as he gingerly removed himself from Fox’s cock. Fox whimpered at the loss of contact.

“Well fuck me”, Wolf said proudly as he fished a rag from his pants and pressed it against his ass, presumably to clean up Fox’s mess. “Literally.”

Fox just sighed in content, only taking stock of the fact his front was covered in Wolf’s ejaculate as his mind started to reboot. He looked at Wolf’s rag. “Can you pass me that when you’re done with it?”

“Sure”, Wolf tossed it to him.

As Fox began to clean himself up, he realized something.

“Wait”.

He took a closer look at the rag.

“…This isn’t what I think it is. Is it?”

He caught the lupine making an embarrassed expression – a verified rarity – but as Wolf opened his mouth to explain himself, the Arwing was surrounded by a deep, penetrating ice-blue light. Fox angled his head to look out of the window – to find the Great Fox angled over them, pulling them in with its tractor beam.

“_Shit!_”, Wolf yelled frantically as he began to yank his pants back on. It took Fox another second for his brain to kick back into gear and start doing the same, trying his best to make it look like nothing notable had happened.

They’d just barely cleaned themselves up with the Arwing was fully enclosed back within the Great Fox’s hangar bay, let down gently on belly. Fox gave himself one last second to calm down before he opened the cockpit and poked his head into the bay beyond.

“_Fox!_”, Slippy yelled as he dashed towards the fighter, the rest of the combined teams of Star Fox and Star Wolf behind him. “Are you alright?”

Fox put on an easy-going grin. “Yeah – we both are”, he added as Wolf began to get out of the cockpit himself. “Thanks for fishing us out.”

“We knew something was wrong when you guys didn’t check back in”, Slippy continued. “What happened?”

Wolf grunted. “_Solar_ happened.” As the crew looked at him confusedly, Fox explained the planet’s eruption and aftermath.

“So they’re all sitting dead out there?”, Falco asked, indicating the other research ships.

“Yes”, Fox answered. “We need to call in Cornerian forces to pick them up.”

“On it”, Slippy said, apparently more than willing to take charge on a mission involving research gone awry.

“Thank goodness it was only electromagnetic in nature”, Krystal stated. “If it had been anything more serious than it was…”

Fox nodded solemnly. “We would’ve died, yeah.” He frowned. “…To be honest, I’d rather not think about that at the moment.” Krystal nodded.

“Why not?”, Fay chimed in. “That makes it even more exciting! I think about my death all the time. It makes living all the sweeter!”

Wolf shot her a warning look. “Well, we can’t all be nutjobs, Fay. Excuse us for that.”

……….

Fox nursed a cup of decaf while he absentmindedly toured his own ship, looking for a particular mammal. Wolf was busy talking with Falco about… something, and Fox left the pair to talk about whatever it was they wanted to talk about. He couldn’t help the thought that his boyfriend and his best friend were bonding from making him feel all warm and fuzzy – though he’d never tell either of them anything to that effect.

He finally found his target in the shooting range, practicing with a sniper rifle.

“Planning to assassinate someone?”, Fox asked jokingly.

The feline chuckled. “No. But you never know when such skills can be useful.” Panther set the long-range blaster rifle down and eyed Fox with interest. “What brings you to seek me out, Fox?”

Fox shrugged. “Who said I was?”

Panther hummed in thought while he stroked his whiskers. “No one. But I get the distinct feeling it’s no coincidence you’ve bumped into me after spending significant alone-time with Wolf – the first chance you’ve had to speak one-on-one with him in true privacy since the two of us conversed about Wolf’s mental state.”

Fox didn’t know whether to smile or frown. “You have a side-gig as a detective?”

Panther laughed lightly. “Once. A lifetime ago. Now tell me”, he began before Fox had a chance to ask him to elaborate on that off-handed comment. “How did things go with Wolf?”

“…Well, actually”, Fox answered. “I don’t know what the future holds for us, but I don’t think he thinks he’s going to corrupt me anymore.”

“Good”, Panther responded. “That’s about the extent of what you could have possibly achieved at this point, so be glad you reached it.” He picked up the rifle again, seemingly bringing the short conversation to a close. But before he resumed, he looked Fox straight in the eyes.

“Don’t give up on him, Fox.” His yellow eyes were piercing against the dark of his fur, the contrast giving them the illusion of glowing. “Even if he’s given up on himself.”

Fox was about to make a pithy comment, but thought better of it. Instead, he gave Panther a genuine smile and a nod – and Panther returned it.

……….

“Slippy get any good data from the readings?”, Wolf asked as Fox rejoined with him on the bridge.

Fox shrugged. “Don’t know – he’s trying to figure them out as we speak.” The vulpine gave Wolf a knowing look. “Never took you for the sentimental type, Wolf.”

“What’dya mean?”, the lupine asked shortly. Fox noticed he had a tendency to slur his words together when he felt like he was under attack – but he refused to give up regardless.

“I mean, not many guys save their partners’ cumrags. I don’t know if I find that endearing, or disgusting.”

Wolf narrowed his eyes. “I’ll have you know it’s a perfectly functional rag that has a bunch of uses, cleaning up cum being only one of them. And I also clean it with the rest of my laundry – I’m not a fucking animal, Fox.”

Fox covered his eyes with his paw as he began to laugh.

He withdrew it as Slippy walked onto the bridge, dumb smile still plastered on his face. “What’s up, Slippy?”

The amphibian looked a little queasy. “Just, _uh_… just wanted to go over the readings. Can you help me out, Fox?”

Fox frowned – he didn’t know anything about this sort of stuff. “_Uh_, sure. What do you need help with?”

Slippy gestured for Fox to walk with him into the hall, and Fox followed shrugging slightly at Wolf’s mouthed “_What?_”

As the door of the bridge closed shut behind them, Slippy stopped and turned to look at Fox, pulling at his collar.

“Slippy”, Fox asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh!”, Slippy started. “Nothing’s wrong with the readings or anything, they’re actually really good. And I don’t need your help with them. It’s just…”

Fox nodded slowly to get him to continue.

“Well… I mean, I understand what it’s like to be in love. I mean, I’m getting married in a few weeks, after all. So I get how it feels.”

Fox just looked at him confusedly. “…Yeah?”

“Yeah”, Slippy continued. “And, _uh_, sometimes, that love can make you… do stuff? But… it’s just… if you _do_ do stuff, and there’s maybe a… m-mess…”

_Oh no_, Fox thought.

“E-especially if it’s in someone else’s ship, maybe c-could you… clean it up a little… _better?_”

Fox put his paw to his face and rubbed his temple to alleviate the fast-oncoming headache. “Yeah”, he said. “And I’m really sorry about that. And it won’t ever happen again.”

Slippy laughed nervously. “Y-yeah. Sorry to bring that up. Just…”

Fox was completely mortified. “No, it’s totally my fault. Well, Wolf’s fault, specifically”, he said with a chuckle before realizing what exactly he’d implied and becoming even more mortified.

“…Oh. S-so it’s _W-Wolf’s_, that I cleaned up”, Slippy said with a smile that belied the fact that he looked like he might cry. “That’s g-good to know!”

Fox laid a conciliatory paw on Slippy’s shoulder, a dour expression on his face. “Slippy”, he started the way he might when speaking to someone grieving a recent loss. “I’m so sorry.”

Slippy put his own hand on top of Fox’s paw, making everything even more awkward. “It’s all good, Fox. Sometimes we love people so much we… explode…?”

Fox cringed, but smiled regardless. “Yeah.”

“We do.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Wolf is canonically (at least in part) a power-bottom in this series.
> 
> As I'm sure you've noticed, this one took longer to write than past entries relative to its shorter length. Classes are really picking up in terms of sheer content, and I'm going to be busier than I initially anticipated over the next few months... and years.
> 
> Because of this, I can't give a solid date for the release in the next entry in Worlds of Lylat, or even an estimate. I've done a bit of thinking in what free time I have, and have decided to 1) focus entirely on WoL (so no other one-off stories; I just don't have the time and would rather focus on this), and 2) go back to the format I used in earlier stories where I'd post it chapter by chapter whenever a chapter was completed, because that type of writing keeps me more motivated to continue. Just bear in mind that there might be a little while between chapters, rather than their coming at a solid pace of one every few days.
> 
> I've made a twitter account called "Galsult" where I'll periodically post progress updates for those who're interested, i.e. every few days I'll say I'm [x]% done with the next chapter and so on. Just don't be surprised if I don't really have anything more to say than bland status updates on there.
> 
> As always, thanks for kudos, comments, and criticism - see you next time.


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